IHA news

On Saturday, November 26 2016 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 1 hr programme entitled "Logan's Run and Intergenerational War", presented by Ed Howker, with extensive contributions from IHA Co-Director Professor David Gems. The programme included in depth discussion of the impact of the ageing of populations, and the prospects for treatments for ageing to improve late-life health. Among other contributors to the programme were former Universities and Science minister David Willetts and the actress Jenny Agutter.

IHA news

David Gems on BBC Radio 4 "Archive on 4"

Publication date:
30 November 2016

On Saturday, November 26 2016 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 1 hr programme entitled "Logan's Run and Intergenerational War", presented by Ed Howker, with extensive contributions from IHA Co-Director Professor David Gems. The programme included in depth discussion of the impact of the ageing of populations, and the prospects for treatments for ageing to improve late-life health. Among other contributors to the programme were former Universities and Science minister David Willetts and the actress Jenny Agutter.

CNN news: How long can humans live?

Linda Partridge interviewed for BBC News on Vijg Nature Paper

Publication date:
6 October 2016

On Wednesday, October 5 2016 IHA Director Professor Linda Partridge was interviewed on the BBC 6 O'Clock News about the recent Nature paper by Jan Vijg. The Nature paper entitled "Evidence for a limit to human lifespan" suggests a maximum upper age limit for humans and Prof Partridge was asked to comment on this.

ARUK funded post-doc position available at the IHA

Publication date:
11 August 2016

The Institute of Healthy Ageing is currently seeking a post-doctoral research associate to work on the following ARUK-funded project.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two devastating, mid-life, neurodegenerative disorders for which no cure is currently available. Large expansions of a hexanucleotide GGGGCC-repeat in the first intron of the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of both ALS and FTD. We recently developed novel Drosophila models of C9orf72 repeat-induced neurodegeneration (Mizielinska et al Science 2014, 345:1192-1194).

This 3-year post-doctoral position will build on this work by investigating disease mechanisms in a range of C9orf72 fly lines using several approaches including genome-wide transcriptomic and translational analyses in both flies and iPSC-neurons. You will work as part of a collaborative team of investigators in the excellent and supportive scientific research community of UCL.

The post is funded for 3 years in the first instance by Alzheimer’s Research UK and is available from October 2016.

Lectureship for Alexandre Benedetto

Publication date:
20 July 2016

Until recently an EU-funded postdoc in David Gems's lab, Alex Benedetto will shortly set up his own laboratory at the University of Lancaster, in the Department of Biomedical and Life Sciences. There he will continue his investigations of the biology of ageing in model organisms, particularly C. elegans. We wish Alex all the best in setting up his new lab!

Congratulations to Dr Jorge Ivan Castillo Quan whose paper in Cell Reports was published today. His research, which was carried out during his PhD studies at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, demonstrates that fruit flies live 16% longer than average when given low doses of the mood stabiliser lithium.

Memory Matters at the British Library

Publication date:
3 November 2015

A group of research staff and students from the IHA (Fiona Kerr, Teresa Niccoli, Nathan Woodling,
Oyinkansola Adesaki, Jorge Quan Castillo, Thomas Moens, Rubika Balendra)
recently appeared as part of the British Library's sold-out Memory
Matters event on Friday, October 30th.

Talks from Gems Lab at International C. elegans Meeting

Publication date:
7 July 2015

Dr Marina Ezcurra and Dr Alex Benedetto were both selected to speak at the recent International C. elegans Meeting in Los Angeles (June 24th-28th). The two talks described new breakthroughs in understanding the mechanisms by which age-related pathologies originate in C. elegans, and generated considerable interest. Alex also described a new stress-resistance assay based on death fluorescence, recently discovered in the Gems lab. For details of the C. elegans International Meeting see http://www.genetics-gsa.org/celegans/2015/

Institute of Healthy Ageing hosts BSRA Annual Meeting

Publication date:
7 July 2015

The 65th British Society for Research on Ageing Annual Meeting took place at the Institute of Healthy Ageing on July 1st-2nd 2015. Speakers at the conference included Claudio Franceschi (Bologna), Paul Shiels (Glasgow), Jesus Gil (Imperial), and Avan Aihie Sayer (Southampton). They also included several speakers from the IHA: Lazaros Foukas, who described how ageing can be slowed down in mice by reducing PI3 kinase signalling, Cathy Slack (whose talk was awarded the Korenchevsky Prize) spoke about how Ras signalling controls fruitfly ageing, and David Gems who gave a welcome address, including a discussion of “The ageing-disease false dichotomy”.For further information about the meeting see http://www.bsra.org.uk/node/842

New article by David Gems!

Publication date:
7 July 2015

A new article has just been published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics, entitled “The aging-disease false dichotomy: understanding senescence as pathology” (June 16, 2015, vol. 6, article 212). The article describes how a number of current worries about the prospects of treatments for ageing are misconceptions generated the traditional but incorrect view that ageing is distinct from age-related disease. It also proposes a new understanding of how interventions that extend lifespan operate that reconciles opposing views of traditional medicine and biogerontology. See http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fgene.2015.00212/abstract

Ageing can lead to declining health and function, and it is the major risk factor for cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease. This new Wellcome Trust conference will focus on recent discoveries and current challenges in ageing research, with a focus on translating basic research insights into health improvement for older people. We aim to explore the mechanisms of ageing in cells, tissues and organisms in order to identify interventions that can ameliorate its negative effects. The meeting will also emphasise the connection between discoveries made in model organisms and mechanisms leading to healthy ageing in humans.

The meeting is aimed at scientists, clinicians and drug developers involved in research into ageing and other relevant fields. We welcome the submission of abstracts from all areas relevant to the main themes of the meeting. Several oral presentations will be chosen from the abstracts submitted.

IHA Director, Professor Linda Partridge, has been recognised with a BBSRC Anniversary Award for Excellence in Bioscience.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has recognised outstanding contributions to bioscience made by four of its research community. As part of BBSRC’s 20th anniversary, the awards demonstrate pride for the UK's world-leading bioscience research base and the impact it has achieved in the last two decades.

The awards will be presented at the Great British Bioscience Festival in November.

Professor Jackie Hunter, BBSRC Chief Executive, said: "Our 20th anniversary year is the perfect time to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of researchers that BBSRC has supported. These awards highlight outstanding achievements that benefit us all and help to make the UK world-leading in bioscience."